Why the Dez Bryant Fiasco is Overblown

Every main sports website I read (ESPN, SI, Fanhouse, etc.) has a ton of writers voicing their opinions on what happened inside that NFL Combine interview room between Miami Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland and Dez Bryant, the most talented wide receiver prospect in the 2010 draft. Before I actually go into any personal analysis, let’s look at actual FACTS about this “case study":

1. Bryant’s mother was very young when she gave birth to him. Reports have her conceiving Bryant when she was about 14 years old. There have been no reports of her being raped, so she willingly became pregnant at age 14.
2. Bryant’s mother served jail time (18 months in the slammer) for selling crack cocaine. So her character has two questionable marks already.
3. Dez Bryant has character issues of his own; Oklahoma State coaches chastised him for his excessive lateness and anger problems. (I list this because given the first two facts, how could NFL teams not try to correlate this?)

Which leads us to the exchange between Bryant and Ireland. Ireland had asked Bryant what his father did for a living; Bryant responded by saying his father was a pimp and did not play a big role in his life. Enter the alleged dialogue:

Bryant: “My father was a pimp.”
Ireland: “What did your mom do [for a living]?”
Bryant: “She worked for my dad.”

WOW. Let’s put two and two together. Apply the aforementioned circumstances with Mrs. Bryant and combine that with the fact she worked for (not with, FOR) Dez’s pimp father. I wonder what was going through Ireland’s mind when he heard that. So needless to say, it concludes with this interaction:

Ireland: “Your mom was a prostitute?”
Bryant: “No, she wasn’t a prostitute.”

Major props to Bryant for not putting his fist through Ireland’s mouth. But really, is that really an irrational question to ask? NFL executives are dying to know every detail of their future players. Florida State safety and Rhodes scholar Myron Rolle was asked how it felt to “desert” his football team for an education at Oxford. One can conclude that sometimes, the questions can be a bit unusual, but that’s only front office figureheads trying to throw the prospects off a bit and adjust to the questions.

Ireland didn’t insult Bryant’s mother. He didn’t call her a whore, a ho, a trick, a tramp, or any derogatory word for a female you may hear in a rap song. He literally asked Bryant, straight up, if his mother was a prostitute. It doesn’t matter what the answer is. Dez Bryant was the best receiver in college football regardless if his mother slept with people for compensation. It's not like the general manager "ran out" of questions to ask him and randomly asked that question.

Now granted, it may be considered a bit inappropriate or off-color, but the media ruckus that has ensued is nowhere near what the situation really deserved. Of course, when I ran this issue past my parents, they seemed to have differing opinions. My mother felt that Ireland’s question was perfectly acceptable; after all, the NFL is a multimillion dollar industry where its performers are constantly under media scrutiny, and the players reflect their organizations and may have a negative influence if they have troubled backgrounds. My father tended to disagree with this notion, saying it’s nowhere near appropriate to ask such a question on a job interview. He’s right; but this is a professional sports league, where everyone gets away with their freedom of speech. Millions of fans make judgments on players every day based on off-field criteria, which is a bit unfair although expected in this media-heavy sports society.

Just let it go. That's my take on it.